Johann
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- Oct 26, 2022
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THE KOSMOS
THE WORLD SYSTEM
THE EVIL ANTI-GOD FORCE
6. Kosmos defines the world not as a neutral influence but as an "evil force", the inveterate, incorrigible, intractable, intransigent, irrevocable enemy of God and of every believer. This begs the question "Why would any believer ever desire to befriend or be friends with such a 'ferocious' foe?"
Bishop Trench gives a frequently quoted summary definition of the anti-God world system explaining that it is...
All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale.
Kosmos includes the ungodly (unsaved) multitude, the whole mass of men alienated from God and hostile to Him and His Son Jesus Christ (See also Earth Dwellers, the synonymous term used by John in The Revelation of Jesus Christ). This meaning describes the system of values, priorities, and beliefs that unbelievers hold that excludes God. (E.g., Just mention the name "Jesus" in a positive sense in a secular setting! You can "feel" the hackles rising up on the back of their necks! Read the following related passages and see if you still want to be "friends" with the world! - Jn 7:7, 15:18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 17:14, 3:19, 20, Lk 6:26, cp Ro 1:30-note, Ro 8:7, 8-note, 2Ti 3:4-note, 1Jn 3:1-note, 1Jn 4:5, Mt 5:10, 11, 12-note, Mt 10:22, 24:9, Mk 13:13, Lk 6:22). This negative meaning of kosmos includes the aggregate of things earthly -- earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, etc., which, although empty and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ (The antidote? Gal 6:14, 1Jn 2:15-note, 1Jn 2:16-note, 1Jn 2:17-note, and remember Mt 16:26, Mk 8:34, 35, 36, Lk 9:23, 24, 25,26) (See also study of the related Greek word aion which is translated age or ages 26x and world or worlds 8x [eg world is aion in 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2-note; Ro 12:2-note]).
BDAG = the world, and everything that belongs to it, appears as that which is hostile to God, i.e. lost in sin, wholly at odds w. anything divine, ruined and depraved
Johann Bengel = kosmos is the subtle (Ed: It's not that subtle in these last days of the second millennium!) informing spirit of the kosmos or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God
I looked for the church and I found it in the world;
I looked for the world and I found it in the church.
--Horatius Bonar
Marvin Vincent = (Kosmos is...) The sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (Jn 7:7; 15:18; 17:9, 14; 1Co 1:20, 21; 2Co 7:10; Jas 4:4).
David Guzik = One of the first examples of this idea of the world in the Bible helps us to understand this point. Genesis 11 (Ge 11:1NLT "whole world"; Ge 11:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9) speaks of human society’s united rebellion against God at the tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel, there was an anti-God leader of humanity (whose name was Nimrod - cp Ge 10:8, 9, 10 "beginning of his kingdom was Babel"). There was organized rebellion against God (in disobeying the command to disperse over the whole earth). There was direct distrust of God’s word and promise (in building what was probably a water-safe tower to protect against a future flood from heaven). The whole story of the tower of Babel also shows us another fundamental fact about the world system. The world’s progress, technology, government, and organization can make man better off, but not better. Because we like being better off, it is easy to fall in love with the world. Finally, the story of the tower of Babel shows us that the world system - as impressive and winning as it appears to be - will never win out over God. The Lord defeated the rebellion at the tower of Babel easily. (1 John 2:15-17 - David Guzik's Commentaries on the Bible)
John Trapp - Pleasure, profit, preferment are the worldling's trinity.
D Edmond Hiebert = Because of the fallen nature of the human race, the term (kosmos) predominantly has an ethical import, the human race in its alienation from and opposition to God.
Hiebert adds that kosmos (as used in Jas 4:4) "does not refer to the material creation but rather to the mass of unredeemed humanity as an egocentric world-system that is hostile to God. It is "a mighty flood of thoughts, feelings, principles of action, conventional prejudices, dislikes, attachments, which have been gathering around human life for ages, impregnating it, impelling it, moulding it, degrading it" (Liddon). Its central aim is self-enjoyment and self-aggrandizement in disregard of or in open hostility toward God. To cultivate the world's friendship implies conformity to its principles and aims. To be controlled by the spirit of worldliness is wholly incompatible with loyalty to God; it makes them guilty of spiritual adultery." (cp Mt 6:24-note) (D Edmond Hiebert - James - Highly Recommended Commentary - Any commentary written by Hiebert is excellent!)
Akin = (Kosmos is) an evil organized earthly system controlled by the power of the evil one (1Jn 5:19) that has aligned itself against God and His kingdom (1Jn 4:3, 4, 5; 5:19; Jn 16:11). (Akin, D. L. 1, 2, 3 John: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
W. H. Griffith Thomas - Worldliness is a spirit, an atmosphere, an influence permeating the whole of life and human society, and it needs to be guarded against constantly and strenuously.
R H Mounce = The world is the place where God has come to do His redeeming and transforming work. In this sense, kosmos often has a negative connotation. This world is equated with this passing, evil age, which is opposed to God (1Co 3:18KJV, 19; Eph 2:2-note; cf. Ro 12:2-note). A fundamental part of Christ's work on the cross was defeating the elements of this world (Col 2:8-20)...The kosmos resists the very God who created it and his Son (Jn. 1:9, 10, 11; 7:7); consequently, this world is ruled by the evil one (Jn 12:31; 16:11). Therefore, while Christians continue to live in this kosmos, they must maintain purity and refrain from being caught up in this world's systems (Jn 17:15, 16, 17; 1Jn 2:15-note; cf. Php 2:15-note; Jas 1:27-note; Jas 4:4). But the superabundant grace and power of God are shown in that despite this opposition and corruption, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).
Malcolm Watts - Make no mistake about it, the world with its unbelief is a spiritual ice-house, and too much contact with it will quickly cool the spirit.
Kenneth Wuest = Kosmos refers to an ordered system. Here it is the ordered system of which Satan is the head, his fallen angels and demons are his emissaries, and the unsaved of the human race are his subjects, together with those purposes, pursuits, pleasures, practices, and places where God is not wanted. Much in this world-system is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual. But it is anti-God and anti-Christ...The Germans have a word for kosmos (world of men who are living alienated and apart from God) the zeitgeist or spirit of the age. This masquerade costume which saints sometimes put on, hides the Lord Jesus living in the heart of the Christian, and is an opaque covering through which the Holy Spirit cannot radiate the beauty of the Lord Jesus. The world says to that kind of a saint, “The modernism of your appearance nullifies the fundamentalism of your doctrine.” (Wow!) (
Wuest
www.preceptaustin.org
THE WORLD SYSTEM
THE EVIL ANTI-GOD FORCE
6. Kosmos defines the world not as a neutral influence but as an "evil force", the inveterate, incorrigible, intractable, intransigent, irrevocable enemy of God and of every believer. This begs the question "Why would any believer ever desire to befriend or be friends with such a 'ferocious' foe?"
Bishop Trench gives a frequently quoted summary definition of the anti-God world system explaining that it is...
All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale.
Kosmos includes the ungodly (unsaved) multitude, the whole mass of men alienated from God and hostile to Him and His Son Jesus Christ (See also Earth Dwellers, the synonymous term used by John in The Revelation of Jesus Christ). This meaning describes the system of values, priorities, and beliefs that unbelievers hold that excludes God. (E.g., Just mention the name "Jesus" in a positive sense in a secular setting! You can "feel" the hackles rising up on the back of their necks! Read the following related passages and see if you still want to be "friends" with the world! - Jn 7:7, 15:18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 17:14, 3:19, 20, Lk 6:26, cp Ro 1:30-note, Ro 8:7, 8-note, 2Ti 3:4-note, 1Jn 3:1-note, 1Jn 4:5, Mt 5:10, 11, 12-note, Mt 10:22, 24:9, Mk 13:13, Lk 6:22). This negative meaning of kosmos includes the aggregate of things earthly -- earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, etc., which, although empty and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ (The antidote? Gal 6:14, 1Jn 2:15-note, 1Jn 2:16-note, 1Jn 2:17-note, and remember Mt 16:26, Mk 8:34, 35, 36, Lk 9:23, 24, 25,26) (See also study of the related Greek word aion which is translated age or ages 26x and world or worlds 8x [eg world is aion in 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2-note; Ro 12:2-note]).
BDAG = the world, and everything that belongs to it, appears as that which is hostile to God, i.e. lost in sin, wholly at odds w. anything divine, ruined and depraved
Johann Bengel = kosmos is the subtle (Ed: It's not that subtle in these last days of the second millennium!) informing spirit of the kosmos or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God
I looked for the church and I found it in the world;
I looked for the world and I found it in the church.
--Horatius Bonar
Marvin Vincent = (Kosmos is...) The sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (Jn 7:7; 15:18; 17:9, 14; 1Co 1:20, 21; 2Co 7:10; Jas 4:4).
David Guzik = One of the first examples of this idea of the world in the Bible helps us to understand this point. Genesis 11 (Ge 11:1NLT "whole world"; Ge 11:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9) speaks of human society’s united rebellion against God at the tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel, there was an anti-God leader of humanity (whose name was Nimrod - cp Ge 10:8, 9, 10 "beginning of his kingdom was Babel"). There was organized rebellion against God (in disobeying the command to disperse over the whole earth). There was direct distrust of God’s word and promise (in building what was probably a water-safe tower to protect against a future flood from heaven). The whole story of the tower of Babel also shows us another fundamental fact about the world system. The world’s progress, technology, government, and organization can make man better off, but not better. Because we like being better off, it is easy to fall in love with the world. Finally, the story of the tower of Babel shows us that the world system - as impressive and winning as it appears to be - will never win out over God. The Lord defeated the rebellion at the tower of Babel easily. (1 John 2:15-17 - David Guzik's Commentaries on the Bible)
John Trapp - Pleasure, profit, preferment are the worldling's trinity.
D Edmond Hiebert = Because of the fallen nature of the human race, the term (kosmos) predominantly has an ethical import, the human race in its alienation from and opposition to God.
Hiebert adds that kosmos (as used in Jas 4:4) "does not refer to the material creation but rather to the mass of unredeemed humanity as an egocentric world-system that is hostile to God. It is "a mighty flood of thoughts, feelings, principles of action, conventional prejudices, dislikes, attachments, which have been gathering around human life for ages, impregnating it, impelling it, moulding it, degrading it" (Liddon). Its central aim is self-enjoyment and self-aggrandizement in disregard of or in open hostility toward God. To cultivate the world's friendship implies conformity to its principles and aims. To be controlled by the spirit of worldliness is wholly incompatible with loyalty to God; it makes them guilty of spiritual adultery." (cp Mt 6:24-note) (D Edmond Hiebert - James - Highly Recommended Commentary - Any commentary written by Hiebert is excellent!)
Akin = (Kosmos is) an evil organized earthly system controlled by the power of the evil one (1Jn 5:19) that has aligned itself against God and His kingdom (1Jn 4:3, 4, 5; 5:19; Jn 16:11). (Akin, D. L. 1, 2, 3 John: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
W. H. Griffith Thomas - Worldliness is a spirit, an atmosphere, an influence permeating the whole of life and human society, and it needs to be guarded against constantly and strenuously.
R H Mounce = The world is the place where God has come to do His redeeming and transforming work. In this sense, kosmos often has a negative connotation. This world is equated with this passing, evil age, which is opposed to God (1Co 3:18KJV, 19; Eph 2:2-note; cf. Ro 12:2-note). A fundamental part of Christ's work on the cross was defeating the elements of this world (Col 2:8-20)...The kosmos resists the very God who created it and his Son (Jn. 1:9, 10, 11; 7:7); consequently, this world is ruled by the evil one (Jn 12:31; 16:11). Therefore, while Christians continue to live in this kosmos, they must maintain purity and refrain from being caught up in this world's systems (Jn 17:15, 16, 17; 1Jn 2:15-note; cf. Php 2:15-note; Jas 1:27-note; Jas 4:4). But the superabundant grace and power of God are shown in that despite this opposition and corruption, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).
Malcolm Watts - Make no mistake about it, the world with its unbelief is a spiritual ice-house, and too much contact with it will quickly cool the spirit.
Kenneth Wuest = Kosmos refers to an ordered system. Here it is the ordered system of which Satan is the head, his fallen angels and demons are his emissaries, and the unsaved of the human race are his subjects, together with those purposes, pursuits, pleasures, practices, and places where God is not wanted. Much in this world-system is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual. But it is anti-God and anti-Christ...The Germans have a word for kosmos (world of men who are living alienated and apart from God) the zeitgeist or spirit of the age. This masquerade costume which saints sometimes put on, hides the Lord Jesus living in the heart of the Christian, and is an opaque covering through which the Holy Spirit cannot radiate the beauty of the Lord Jesus. The world says to that kind of a saint, “The modernism of your appearance nullifies the fundamentalism of your doctrine.” (Wow!) (
Wuest
